Welcome from your Conference Hosts

On behalf of the NCRG, the Institute for Research on Pathological Gambling and Related Disorders, and the Division on Addictions, we want to welcome you to the blog for the 7th Annual NCRG Conference on Gambling and Addiction. At this year’s conference, we continue our efforts to bring together individuals committed to looking beyond their experiences as clinicians, researchers, gaming industry personnel, regulators and public officials to consider how we all can work together to reduce gambling-related harms.

Our theme this year, Lost in Translation? The Challenge of Turning Good Research into Best Practices, represents our organizations’ mutual commitment to bridging the gap between scientific research and best practices. To this end, our distinguished speakers will explore how what we know about gambling—both healthy and disordered—can be translated into responsible gaming practices, prevention programs, diagnosis, treatment, public health policy and gaming regulations. The NCRG conference blog team will make sure our speakers’ messages don’t get lost in translation, keeping you informed by posting entries on the latest happenings at the conference.

As you can see by viewing the full conference program, the sessions this year tackle both timely and timeless questions. We encourage you to stay tuned to the blog during the coming weeks to get a preview of these questions and the important topics that will be addressed at the conference. We hope to see you in Las Vegas next month.

Howard J. Shaffer, Ph.D., C.A.S.
Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Director, Division on Addictions, The Cambridge Health Alliance

Phil Satre
Chairman, National Center for Responsible Gaming